The Hate U Give was a movie releases on October 19, 2018, directed by George Tillman Jr. It follows the life of a African American teenager, Starr Carter, after the death of her friend Khalil. Khalil was killed by a white police officer because the officer thought he saw a gun. This movie tied into the numerous African American deaths due to guns by police officers or just in general. The movie, after Khalil died, showed the revolution lead by Starr toward equality for the African American community or Just Us For Justice, which was the organization that helped lead the revolution. The scene I chose was the scene that started it all for Starr, Khalil’s death. One thing that Khalil said in the scene right before the cop pulled them over was “We’ve been together our whole life Starr, we got time.” Khalil loved Starr and even though she had a boyfriend, he did not feel afraid to tell her that they will always have a future together. The sad reality is that they will not have that time due to Khalil’s unfortunate death. I kind of like to think that Khalil said that because in a way he knew that he might not make it to that day of getting to be with Starr. I chose this scene because it was the monumental moment where Starr wished that things were different in her community and the world, especially since someone who she loved deep down had died because of a gun that was shot by a white police officer.

 

One first filming technique I noticed was that in the very beginning when Khalil was expressing his love, there was a lot of light on Starr and Khalil’s face before they were pulled over and that showed me hope that nothing bad would happen to him, even though I knew that it would. Another thing I noticed is that this scene happened at night when bad things are more likely to happen. Seemed kind of coincidental but it was good. The camera angles were pretty predictable in the beginning but one angle that I really liked was from the view of the police officers car pulling Khalil and Starr over. It made the scene feel real. One aspect of the lighting in this scene that I liked was the overall image of police red and blue lights on Starr’s face. It showed the shock and horror that she was going through at the moment. This scene made me ask myself, what the hell would I do if I was in this scenario. What the hell would I do? The only two pieces of music were the music playing in Khalil’s car, in their real-life moment, before his death and the shocking music that started as soon as he got shot. There was a good pan shot from when Khalil got shot to the officer's reaction than a quick cut to Starr’s reaction. At the very end, Starr is asking the officer “What did you do! What did you do!” because she is wondering why he shot Khalil. It shows another clip from the officer's view from looking at Starr to Khalil’s almost dead body next to a hairbrush. This scene was very emotional but burnt a spark inside me and it is still burning for better equality in our world.